Apple Inc has suspended online sales of its products in Russia while it mulls its response to the dramatic fall in the value of the ruble, a news report said Wednesday.

"Our online store in Russia is currently unavailable while we review pricing," a spokesman told Bloomberg in an email.

The giant electronics store, which only launched its online store in Russia last month, has already raised the online price of its flagship smartphone in response to the falling ruble. A day after the launch of its new site in November, Apple hiked the price of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus by an average of 25 percent to account for the fall in the value of the ruble.Russia's currency has lost more than 45 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar since January.Apple did not say when its online store was expected to be back online.

The co-owner of a financial services company has killed himself at a top Moscow hotel, in a suicide possibly linked to the strains of the falling ruble, a news report said. The unidentified 70-year-old man shot himself at the National Hotel on Tuesday evening, the Interfax news agency reported, citing sources in law enforcement.

"It is possible that the reason for the suicide was the psychological strain [of the ruble's collapse]," one police source was cited as saying. The ruble has lost more than 50 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar since the turn of the year, and it took a nosedive earlier this week, just ahead of the man's suicide. The five-star National Hotel, located on the corner of the city's Tverskaya Ulitsa, stands opposite the Kremlin.

US and Cuba are to start talks to normalise diplomatic ties in a historic shift in relations between the two countries, media reports say. American officials have told US media the US is looking to open an embassy in Havana in the coming months. The moves are part of a deal that saw the release of American Alan Gross by Cuba and includes the release of three Cubans jailed in Florida for spying. US President Barack Obama is making a statement later. Mr Gross, 65, has spent five years behind bars after being accused of subversion, for trying to bring internet services to communities in Cuba. He earlier left Cuba on a US government plane and was freed on humanitarian grounds. His arrest and imprisonment had undermined attempts to thaw diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The three Cubans released in the US are part of the so-called Cuban Five convicted of spying. Prosecutors said the five had sought to infiltrate US military bases and spied on Cuban exiles in Florida. Two were recently allowed to return to Cuba after finishing their sentences.

The EU General Court has ordered that the Palestinian militant group Hamas be removed from the bloc’s terror blacklist. The move comes over four years after Hamas appealed its terror designation before the EU.